Today we’d like to introduce you to Ishioma Odinjor
Hi Ishioma, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I think growing up, I never thought of becoming a beauty influencer or someone who even showed their face on the internet. I mean, I used to spend all my days outside of school or Kumon watching Jackie Aina’s makeup tutorials, other YouTubers’ morning routines, OOTD inspirations on Instagram, and funny videos on Vine. I would come home from school, hop on YouTube and watch Jackie Aina (now Jackie Asamoah), Alissa Ashley, Uche Natori, MakeupbyShayla, and more for hours! I used to really admire how confident they were to show their faces on the internet and be authentically themselves! I, however, was super shy growing up. I struggled immensely with self-esteem issues and, unfortunately, faced a lot of bullying and isolation, which made things a lot harder. I didn’t get to have that community until I made more efforts to come out of my shell from high school to college. I think this is also where I started experimenting with makeup, as I didn’t have the skills just yet. At the time, all I could get my hands on was drugstore make-up like Wet-n-Wild and e.l.f because that’s what my allowance could cover but I made it work! I tried all sorts of dark lipsticks and ashy foundation shades. Makeup hadn’t really made the diverse strides it has today so much so to say that even I was the darkest shade a lot of the time. However, I will always remember how I’d get my makeup done for homecoming and my junior prom at the MAC store in Town Center Mall by Dehja Rose, who also privately did my senior prom makeup, and it fueled this energy to get more into makeup and beauty as a black girl, but the road to content creation did not start till I got to college.
Before I got on TikTok, I was social enough on Instagram by posting stories almost every day to the point where it was annoying but in real life, I was still shy and awkward. I had a hard time fitting in still and it was frustrating but luckily, I still was able to build frienships that I still have today. Funny enough, TikTok before 2019 was just a kid’s app to me and I didn’t want any parts of it until one of my college and long-time friends, Deeyona, finally convinced me to get on the app. From there, it was just silly little videos. Jokes that I would make here and there and people would laugh. But slowly, I started finding my voice and I started sharing experiences and my real interests. Now I’ve always been a big believer in ‘WHAT and WHO God has meant for you, will find you’ and that is exactly what happened here. People found my videos and could relate with me, laugh with me, cry with me, be angry with me, all of it! I was building my community up bit by bit but I still hadn’t switched to beauty content just yet until 2020.
Building the confidence I needed to start making beauty content didn’t happen overnight. As I said before, I loved experimenting with makeup but the idea of femininity and being girly was lost on me until I hit about 20 years old during the COVID-19 pandemic. In college, I was a STEM girly through and through so I focused mostly on school. I was still having a hard time finding community and making friends because I was still learning how to express myself in my real life! Makeup was just not a thought to me but I loved skincare , specifically Glossier’s skincare, so I would make videos about that or stick with my comedy and girl talk videos. While my confidence was growing and I found myself a voice through content creation, I made some very good friends around my senior year (love you, BrunchBunch!) and being around them made me tap into my feminine side more. Because of my friend, Devan, taking time to sit down with me all the way in California and walk through doing a full makeup routine with me, I started doing my makeup more and leaning into my own individual fashion style and I was reflecting this all through my TikTok platform. As my friendships poured into me and helped me grow, I would pour it back into my online community so, they watched me grow and change into this open and confident girl through fashion and beauty and they would grow with me!
The switch to beauty content finally happened when I got to grad school. I saw so many people having fun with it and using it as the perfect medium to tell their stories and I thought “why not?”. Mind you, all the makeup I owned by this point was mostly drugstore makeup with the exception of my Charlotte Tilbury foundation. It was a huge leap because I had never formally done makeup videos but I had been making and editing videos for years by this point! So I did it. I made an abrupt change and boy, did it flop! My views had tanked and I was not getting any engagement for months! I almost gave up because I thought “maybe I just don’t have the face of a beauty influencer.”. However, I didn’t stop. I kept myself consistent. I kept myself open to learning new skills in filming and editing. I kept myself teachable on how to connect with new audiences and the business side of it all. Those three values that I had and still have are what brought me here today. In all honesty, I truly think it has been the grace of God that has gotten me here. Yes, I did the necessary work but truthfully, it could have all been in vain. None of what I have was ever guaranteed in this journey. Because of that grace, I have the best management team, Cecil Horton, who has taught me so much about the business behind the industry and fights for me in the best way possible. Plus, I have made so many friends along the way. Content creation became a catalyst for me to completely change my life. I don’t even remember the shy girl I used to be, who wouldn’t even look in the mirror for too long because she hated what she saw and who had so much pain from rejection and loneliness. Now, I have a community full of young black women and people of color who feel like they have a safe space in me. I’ve had so many girls come up to me in my day to day life or online and tell me how I inspire them to pursue anything they dream of without anything holding them back, regardless of their size, skin tone, or background. It still blows my mind that I can be that for them but, it also fires up the ambition for me to be a better creator and to keep striving for new heights. Because if I can pass on the torch and inspire young black women to work hard for their dreams and relish in their own beauty just like how the OG black creators did for me, it would be the most ultimate honor.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Content creation is never a smooth road. It’s so many ebbs and flows throughout the journey and you’re always on a learning curve. From figuring out the algorithm to keeping your following engaged and staying visible, it’s all something you learn as you go. I think some of my struggles and I think I still struggle with them now is being overlooked. As a black woman, it is very easy to be passed over in this industry because there’s this belief that black women “aren’t marketable” or “aren’t a marketable audience” which is clearly untrue. However, you will see day to day how brands will choose the less qualified content creator than you and even pay them more because they “fit the brand’s aesthetic”. I, just like many other black content creators, have been super vocal about this and we call it out as we should. Black women are a resilient force to be reckoned with when it comes to their support and influence. It should be a good warning to brands and the beauty industry to never trifle with that force. Though we saw upticks in diversity and equitable pay in black creators during the post-pandemic phase, everything has taken a nosedive recently as brands are moving backward on who their ambassadors look like and who gets to partner with them. It all comes down to advocacy at this point but until we finally address intentionality within inclusivity in the beauty industry, I fear the future of inclusive beauty is concerning for black women like me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m excited that I can now officially call myself a Beauty Influencer, not because of metrics or how many followers I have but, because of the impact I’ve imparted. When girls tell me they invested in a certain makeup product because of me, I feel so accomplished because I was able to teach somebody something about makeup and it helped them make a decision for themselves specific to their skin type and tone. It’s a sense of pride that something I created was able to speak to someone in a way that makes them feel seen and related to. Formally speaking, I specialize in teaching black women and women of color how to do their makeup in a way that emphasizes their beauty and goes outside the box with different looks! I also make lifestyle content to show that a real and beautiful life does not always have to be in the context of luxury but of passion.You can work a regular job or pursue medicine like me and still take care of yourself. You don’t have to neglect your beauty for success. You don’t have to choose one or the other. In fact, you can do it all! I share my personal stories to encourage girls to be bold in their life decisions and let nobody steal their confidence, their self-worth, and their respect. We live in world where, as black women, there will always be a force or entity wanting to steal our shine and keep us “in our places” but I tell my audience to break that glass ceiling. My dogma for what I do is “The only person on the earth who can tell a black woman what to do with herself, her body, and her future, is HERSELF”. You can almost call me an “internet big sister” of sorts. I am so proud of the community I’ve built, the people that I’ve met, and the things I have achieved are nothing of the sort of what I could’ve imagined for myself when I was younger. And the fact that there’s so much more to come? I couldn’t be more excited!
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I think the thing that makes me most happy is being recognized. It’s the proudest feeling when someone who follows me comes up to me in person and says hi. I get all giddy because they were checking for me? No way! It’s the biggest honor as a creator. The kind of blessings and lessons that entering this industry gave to me are so valuable because it made me stand up for myself, develop a fortified sense of self, build my confidence, and transform myself as a person to be more confident in my abilities to create meaningful things and personable in the way I communicate with others people from all walks of life. But the fact that I get to inspire people and grow alongside them in their own journeys makes the whole thing much more worth it. I’m watching people become more comfortable living in their bodies no matter their size, becoming bold in the things and experiences they want out of life, and discovering their own wells of joy and happiness. That’s what community is about. It’s not raving about every single new makeup product that drops on the scene but growing with your people, teaching them new things, and giving them space to be vulnerable with you! It’s a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL experience, and I am forever grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@0yiza
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ishiioma
